The Chippa United goalkeeper was part of Nigeria’s historic continental championship team
The Confederation of African Football praised Super Eagles goalkeeper Stanley Nwabari’s brilliant stop in Thursday’s game against Ivory Coast as saving the day, Soccernet.ng reported.
Three games were played on the day, with six goalkeepers making a total of 13 saves as Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria secured wins over Guinea-Bissau and Ivory Coast, respectively. In contrast, Ghana and Egypt played out a thrilling 2-2 draw.
Jesus Owono of Equatorial Guinea made three stops, one more than Upalin Djoko of Guinea-Bissau.
Egypt’s Mohamed El Shenawy and Ghana’s Richard Ofori made two and three saves, respectively, despite allowing two goals each.
In a thrilling clash between the West African giants, Ivorian goalkeeper Yahia Fofana was asked three times by Nigeria’s goalkeeper Nwabari to stop the ball from reaching the net, and he failed to make a save.
Nwabali made his first save early in the match when Cristian Kouame converted a shot on goal with his left foot after Zaidu Sanusi’s header went awry.
However, Nwabari made himself so strong that he was able to deflect the ball into the corner with his ribs.
This was a decisive moment, if the ball had gone into the net, the Super Eagles would have been behind within the first 10 minutes.
Nwabari’s outstanding stop was voted the best parade of the day by CAF, ahead of all its contemporaries.
Thank you Stanley Nwabali, for this #SaveOfTheDay 🧤 #TotalEnergiesAFCON2023 | @GroupEcobank pic.twitter.com/Dnbw8UbaGG
— CAF (@CAF_Online) January 19, 2024
The recognition from the tournament organizers will help boost confidence for Nwabari, who was playing for Nigeria for the second time against Ivory Coast.
Just a few months ago, Nwabari was still not part of the conversation about Nigeria’s best goalkeepers, but he was discovered by head coach Jose Peseiro a few weeks before AFCON started.
The Chippa United goalkeeper made his debut for Nigeria in a 2-0 friendly defeat against Guinea on the eve of the tournament.
Nwabari started in Nigeria’s opening AFCON game (a 1-1 draw with Equatorial Guinea) and kept his first clean sheet for the Super Eagles against Ivory Coast.
